Meet Our Jurors

Maggie is a freelance writer who is passionate about documenting life in Philly through drawing, photography, and fictionalized accounts of her adventures as a lifelong Philly resident. An avid filmgoer, she recalls early inspiration as a video store employee in the suburbs, re-renting and obnoxiously quoting all of the available Scorcese films as many times as her loved ones could withstand. She has collaborated on several short film scripts and enjoys sharing input with friends and colleagues on their projects as well.

Currently a resident of South Philadelphia, you can see Maggie hustling over the storied streets on her hard to miss safety-orange bicycle. Stop her and say hello!

Jhett Bond

Jhett is a Philadelphia lover, designing and building kitchens and bathrooms as a hands-on way to a green building management company. She is currently interested in the intersections between health, healing and the vibrations of sound and light. To her a great film includes: love and lovingness, a fear that is overcome, poetry of motion/words/expression, a sense of place and a renewal of spirit.

Frank Calabretti

Frank has been a fan of the visual arts for many years, both as a film buff and a graphic/web designer. His passion for creative design also reveals itself in his work as a hairstylist. Frank’s other hobbies include art and pool. He organizes the weekly pool tournament at the Raven night club, where he is also a bartender.

Mario DiMaio

Mario is a Temple University graduate in Communications (Radio-TV-Film), Mario has worked as an editor at TV Guide and TiVo and volunteered numerous years for Qfest, qFLIX and the Philadelphia Film Festival. When not in a movie theater, he spends his time baking and posting photos on Instagram, and bicyling for enjoyment and to raise money for various charity organizations.

Susan DiPronio

Susan lives in Philadelphia where she founded ‘Pink Hanger Presents’ which is dedicated to giving voice to the unique life experiences of women. She is a published writer of poems,plays and memoir pieces and a photographer who has shown in a number of galleries. A breast cancer fighter/survivor, Susan has been featured in articles on the struggles of those affected by breast cancer in the LGBT community in “Curve Magazine”, “US News and World Report” and “Cancer Today”. As a recipient of ‘The Transformation Award’ from the Leeway Foundation of 2013, ‘Art for Change Grant’ from the Leeway Foundation in 2007, ‘5- County Arts Fund co-recipient’, 2008, and an honorarium from Philadelphia Fight in 2012, she continues to fight as an artist for social change.

Brian Gannon

Brian Is an award winning short film producer who has been working in Philadelphia’s video production community for 20 years, and has been everything from Production Assistant to Producer and Director. Currently, Brian is an Editor for Center City Film and Video, working on a variety of projects including short films and TV programming. He’s been a volunteer with Philadelphia’s LGBT film festivals for many years and returns as Head of Jurors.

Ed Hall

Ed Is a graphic designer, creative director, and award winning illustrator based in Philadelphia. He has been working in the creative field for over 15 years. He is also a budding photographer, musician, and cook. He has worked with qFLIX in various roles throughout the years and is excited to return for this year’s festival.

Andrii Kovalenko

Growing up in a small industrial town in Ukraine didn’t particularly indulge lovers of the arts. Sports and movies were the only activities occupying his spare time. His focus was always on independent cinema, and it narrowed even more with time. Most often he seeks out filmmakers with cinematography playing an integral role in their movies. Every year Andrii attends film festivals in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, and has had the chance to travel to international festivals in Toronto and Vienna. “It’s wonderful to have the chance to see queer film at qFLIX in the city I’ve called home for the past three years”.

Byron Lee

Byron has been a Philadelphia queer film festival volunteer for 10 years, and has loved seeing the changes in what makes up and counts as queer cinema. As a scholar, he has researched and published work on gay bareback pornography and gay tourism in Philadelphia. By night, he teaches about queer cinema at Temple University. By day, he works for Philadelphia’s construction industry.

Joe’l Ludovich

Joe’l is an award winning film and television director/producer. Her independent films have been screened in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Her work in television has been recognized with numerous awards including three Emmy nominations, several Telly and Communicator awards as well as a Pennsylvania Association for Broadcasters award. Her documentary work includes, “The Man with the Magic Hands,” about a natural healer that won two Telly awards, “Scratched: The Epidemic of Drugs in Horseracing.” In 2017 she won a Telly award for Michele Balan: Live at the Rrazz Room at the Prince Theater in Philadelphia, produced for First Sight Media, LLC. She is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Media Production at Stockton University.

Gabe Martinez

Gabe is a queer Cuban-American visual artist originally from Miami, who works primarily in photography, works on paper, performance, video and installation. Martinez teaches photography at PennDesign in the Department of Fine Arts.

Martinez has been working on projects that touch upon various aspects of Queer culture, some of these influences include: Donna Summer/Disco era, the AIDS epidemic, the films of Wakefield Poole, the novels of John Rechy and the milieu of Fire Island. His work was recently presented at the William Way Community Center’s group exhibition- “Black & Blue: The Colors of Leather”.

Diane Walsh

During Diane’s twenty+ years as an executive in the film and television business in Los Angeles, she collaborated with seasoned professional screenwriters honed in their craft as she developed, sold and produced movies for film and television. Working with Gross-Weston Productions, she produced the Emmy-nominated Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation about childhood AIDS, A Place for Annie, starring Sissy Spacek and Mary Louise Parker. She also thrived on the other side of the table as Director of Programming for the Family Channel weekly movie night.

Founding Board member of the Philadelphia Women in Film and Television chapter, she has also produced a short film by Mike Lemon here in Philadelphia, VALENTINES’S DAY, and has her own national script consulting business.